VIDEO REFLECTION
This is one of the Coca Cola advertisements in 1930s. I chose this video because it is closely related to what I think about the first day of the year. As it can be seen, it features Santa Claus. He comes to a house to give gifts to children. He sees that they left a bottle of Coke for him. While he is drinking, his hat falls and the children watching him laugh. After that, Santa and the children hug each other and the commercial ends. The common image associated with the new year’s eve is Santa Claus, of course. As the new year’s eve approaches, we see Santa Claus figures, costumes or masks. They are everywhere. Since I respect him as a religious figure, I hate the way he is associated with consumerism. Many people know Santa Claus. However, few people know the fact that until 1930s, when Coca Cola advertisements featuring him were released, Santa was an unpopular figure in Christianity. Haddon Sundblom's illustration of Santa for Coke advertisements was an old and fat man with a costume consisting of white, red and black colors, i.e the colors of Coca Cola. Obviously, the advertisements were meant to attract the attention of families and children with the cute and affectionate image of Santa to gain more profit. In the end, the advertisements proved to be effective and they are still by far the most popular advertisement of Coca Cola. They have affected our perception of Santa Claus and Christmas deeply. The image created by Sundblom has become the common figure of Santa. Today we see the new years eve as a way of spending more money or drinking more or having fun more. All these contribute to the flow of money in the market and increases the profit of companies as they did 80 years ago to the Coca Cola company. However, I think the new year should be regarded with more dignity. In the first day of 2012, instead of falling in the traps of consumerism and forgetting the importance of that day, Christians, Muslims or Jews, we all should think about how we spent the previous year and how we should spend the new one.
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